Continued congratulations to Town Clerk Deb Halstead, who celebrated her 20th anniversary within the Office of the Town Clerk last month. Deb began her career in that office under former Town Clerk Cindy Simon. She was then elected to her current position in 2007 after Cindy announced her intention to retire. May will also mark Deb’s tenth anniversary of being recognized as a Master Municipal Clerk, a goal she’d had since joining that office a decade earlier.

Deb also shared some exciting news with me last week: a new tab on the Town Clerk’s website now lets visitors search Newtown’s entire Land Use database online. If you go to newtown-ct.gov/town-clerk and then click on the Land Records & Survey Maps button on the left side of the page, you’ll be taken to a page where you need to either create an account or click the green Search Records as Guest button. The next page is where you can search for records by name. “It goes all the way back to the 1700s!” Deb said, adding “very few towns have been able to do so.” Genealogists rejoice. Some of your research just got easier.

Speaking of land and using it, The Victory Garden at Fairfield Hills has openings for new volunteer gardeners this year. Barbara Richardson, a member of the Victory Garden Committee, said this week there will be six or seven rows available this season after some teams gave up rows at the end of last year’s growing season. Experienced gardeners — especially vegetable growers — and teams are needed, although there are also opportunities for general volunteers. To learn all about the garden — which grows food for the local food pantries — and the responsibilities of cultivating a row, visit newtown-ct.gov/parks-recreation/pages/victory-garden. The deadline for applications is March 15. If you’d like to learn even more, contact Barbara at VictGarden17@gmail.com with questions.

It’s the final weekend of the Brookfield Theatre production of A Flea in Her Ear. Matt Austin’s rave review ran in print and online last week. As we were perusing the cast list on the theater’s website last Friday morning we recognized a name among the roster: C.H. Booth Library Information Technology Librarian Jon Barker! Jon plays Rugby, a guest at the Hotel Coq d’Or, in the production Matt says “is in good hands.” The entire cast was celebrated in Matt’s review, as was the work by the crew. The full review and contact information can be found on our website (newtownbee.com) under Features.

The first photo being featured in this space this week shows the finale of our in-house Canned Food Drive. Bruce the Generous Spruce hosted the event around his roots, with Bee Publishing Company employees asked to donate at least one canned good toward the effort. FAITH Food Pantry volunteer Bob Camilleri visited our office Tuesday morning, when he picked up those donations and delivered them for us to 46 Church Hill Road. Lynn Remson, on the left in the photo, was among those to coordinate the food drive and help Bob put everything in his vehicle Tuesday morning so that he could drive it down the hill to FAITH.

It’s spelling bee season, and a big weekend ahead for Connecticut students hoping to represent our state at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. The 8th Annual Connecticut Spelling Bee is scheduled for 1 pm Sunday, March 9, at The Hoffman Auditorium at University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. Students competing Sunday have already won their school- or town-wide spelling bees. Thousands of students in grades 1-8 participated in the program this year, with 64 now eligible to move to the state level. Organizers say this is the largest and most competitive Connecticut Spelling Bee in recent history. The public is welcome to attend the event. Admission is free, and doors will open at 12:30 for those who would like to view the event in person.

Hayden Hughes, a then-seventh-grade student from Newtown, won the 2024 Connecticut Spelling Champion title after 14 rounds and the correct spelling of “dropsical” last year. She then joined 244 other regional champions in National Harbor, Maryland, for the 2024 national event. She made it through five rounds of competition before she misspelled ariary, finishing tied for 22nd place.

NHS athletes were at the top of their respective games last weekend. The Newtown High cheerleaders followed up their SWC Championship with a state title, flipping, jumping, and tumbling to first place in Class L on Saturday. Additionally, Aashni Shetty competed in the New England Track Championships over the weekend and broke her own school record in the long jump. Read about both in this week’s Sports coverage.

Sam Cross was also a winner earlier this week. Monday was the 25th birthday of our newest reporter, and she knew we knew that from the moment she arrived at the office that morning. Flowers and a card were waiting for her, quarters were added to her desk throughout the day, additional gifts showed up during the day, and Lynn Remson surprised her with a picture perfect cookie cake.

A recent survey by AAA says Americans grew slightly less wary of self-driving vehicles over the past year, but “an overwhelming majority still don’t trust riding in one.” According to a note that came in last week from AAA, just 13% of American drivers indicated they would feel save riding in a self-driving vehicle. While that’s up from the 9% of drivers who last year said they would feel comfortable in such a vehicle, I’m still with the majority! I can’t imagine hopping in a vehicle with my favorite pet store as the destination, only to have the vehicle veer off on its own course. With my luck we’d end up at the animal control center.

I hope you’ll remember to make this space your destination next week, when you can come back to … read me again.